MEB and PH are developers of a COVID-19 vaccine construct, which was licensed by Baylor College of Medicine to Biological E Ltd., a commercial vaccine manufacturer for scale up, production, testing and licensure. MG participates in one of eight SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development projects supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) since March 2020. JK reports personal fees from SK biosciences. JPF and GK are members of the WHO SAGE Working Group on COVID vaccines. GK is independent director of Hilleman Laboratories Private Limited and Vice Chair of the Board, Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). SG has a patent ChAdOx1 licensed to Vaccitech, and a patent ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 licensed to AstraZeneca. SG also reports other work from Vaccitech outside the submitted work. MH is Founder and Managing Director of SaudiVax. HL reports grants and other from GSK, and grants and other from Merck, grants from J&J, outside the submitted work. TS reports grants from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, research contracts from GlaxoSmithKline, research contracts from ViiV Healthcare, and grants from Fastgrants. SS reports grants from Ansun, personal fees from Amplyx, grants from Astellas, personal fees from Acidophil, grants from Cidara, grants from F2G, personal fees from Jannssen, grants from Merck, grants from T2, personal fees from Reviral, grants from Shire, grants from Shionogi, grants from Gilead, personal fees from Intermountain Health, personal fees from Karyopharm, personal fees from Immunome, personal fees from Celltrion, outside the submitted work. NSW reports being a member of the steering committee of the COVID-19 research coalition and sponsor of a COVID-19 therapeutics trial. All other authors declare no conflict of interests. The authors views and opinions in the Commentary do not necessarily represent the views, decisions, or policies of the institutions, universities, or health systems with which they are affiliated.